Federal appeals court rejects Apple request to block Samsung sales

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit [official website] on Thursday rejected a request by Apple to ban sales of the Samsung [corporate websites] Galaxy Nexus smartphone based on allegations of willful patent infringements. The Federal Circuit rejected [Reuters report] Apple's request to have the entire court reconsider imposing a ban Samsung's smartphone before trial commences in March 2014. Apple sought a reversal of an earlier ruling [JURIST report] by a three-judge panel in favor of Samsung. The Federal Circuit declined to reconsider the case without explanation.

On Wednesday, the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled [JURIST report] that Samsung did not willfully infringe Apple patents. If Samsung was found to have willfully infringed Apple's patents, the $1.05 billion jury verdict [JURIST report] against it could have been increased up to triple that amount [35 USC § 284 text]. The judge's ruling partially abrogates the jury verdict, which had found that Samsung willfully infringed five of Apple's seven asserted patents. Last month Apple agreed to withdraw claims [JURIST report] against a Samsung product that Samsung asserts has never been sold in the US in the second of the two patent infringement cases [case materials] taking place in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

About Paper Chase

Paper Chase is JURIST's real-time legal news service, powered by a team of 30 law student reporters and editors led by law professor Bernard Hibbitts at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. As an educational service, Paper Chase is dedicated to presenting important legal news and materials rapidly, objectively and intelligibly in an accessible format.